M. Patrigent

Patrigent embodies the examining magistrate's ideal: unhurried, methodical, and willing to spend years untangling a case rather than risk a hasty judgment. Yet his very thoroughness can look like slowness to those awaiting his verdict, and the gallery outside his door—crowded with the accused and their weeping families—is a purgatory in its own right. When Prosper Bertomy is finally called into his office, the young cashier's freedom rests entirely on this patient, deliberate man's reading of the evidence.